Learning Map

Alternative Spellings for Sounds

Spell words using alternative grapheme choices for known phonemes, learning new spellings for sounds already encountered (e.g., /ɔ:/ as 'a' before ll, /ʌ/ as 'o', words ending -tion), including distinguishing common homophones

How to tell they’ve got it

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Try this together

When your child writes and comes across a word where the same sound can be spelled different ways — like "see" and "sea" — do they know which spelling to use?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on
Phonics Vocabularyages 4–7Alternative grapheme choices for phonemes requires knowing 'grapheme', 'phoneme', 'homophone', and 'GPC'
Segmenting words into soundsages 4–7Must be able to encode CVC words before learning alternative spellings
Single Letter Soundsages 4–6Must know basic letter-sound correspondences before alternative spellings
Alternative Spellings for Known Soundsages 6–8Knowledge of alternative GPCs for reading supports choosing correct spellings
Alternative Spellings for Soundsthis skill · ages 6–9
Unlocks
Homophonesages 7–9Y3-4 homophones build on Y2 alternative spellings/homophones
Revising and editingages 6–7Knowledge of spelling alternatives needed to proofread spelling
Spelling Word Lists (age 7+)ages 7–9Alternative spellings knowledge supports learning statutory words

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E3LY11high confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter) relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words

AC9E1LY09medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

segment words into separate phonemes (sounds) including consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of words (phonological awareness)

AC9E1LY11medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

use short vowels, common long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs to write words, and blend these to read one- and two-syllable words

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

ENE-SPELL-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1
EN2-SPELL-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E3LY05high confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Literacy strand
VC2E2LY04high confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand
VC2EFLY05high confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

All Spelling & Word Study skills →